"A Deeply Religious Non-Believer" Chapter 1

The way these chapter analysis are going to work is that each post will cover a specific section in each chapter. As for the first Chapter we will cover the section called "Deserved Respect." I find it funny that starting on pg 12 Dawkins tries to deny that his materialism is a religion. His whole premise of his book is to show that religion is not to be accepted by rational people. Of course Dawkins thinks that Darwinism has more evidence and thus is more rational then Christianity. We will come back to that idea as we explore Dawkins book. One of the many assumptions that Dawkins makes is that the process of evolution can account for all design on earth, but he seems in interviews and other books to not be able to explain all design in the universe.Phillip E. Johnson make notes in his book Reason in the Balance says this, "A theory of biological origins that is in a general way like Darwinism follows fairly straightforwardly from the proposition that God is an illusion and nature is therefore all that exists..." In other words, Dawkins comes to his conclusions because of a presupposition. The statement that God does not exist, or that God is highly unlikely is simply a statement of Faith. Thus, it seems that Dawkins and the Christian are on the same ground. Please take notice that I did use the word "seems" because i believe that the evidence for God is much greater.
In this section Richard Dawkins make the claim on Page 14 " Human thoughts and emotions emerged from exceedingly complex interconnection of physical entities with in the brain." It is this quote that starts a trend in The God Delusion, the trend is making statements without any warrant. As far as the quote on page 14, that I quoted above, there is a fundamental problem. The problem is that if all thoughts and emotions are simply only products of "complex interconnection of physical entities" then by what criteria can we trust these things? Do not misunderstand what I am saying, it is certainly true these "interconnection" exist. What I am arguing is that the physical is not all there is. (this claim will be shown true as we continue conversation of this book.) The implications of such a thought is absolutely wicked.

Introduction

Introduction

This post is the start of a new project that I think is very important. This project involves doing a critical reading through the books of the four major Atheist. I have chosen to start with Richard Dawkins, because he is the most popular of the bunch. As a young Apologist, it is important that I take time and respond to those who attack the faith that I defend. This project will be a along one but I think a very important one. Because I think it very important, I want to do it well and thoroughly. My objective in this project is to show a few things, One overall bad scholarship, and two the obvious tendency to think badly.

I want to start by giving you a brief introduction to the man Richard Dawkins. Richard Dawkins was educated at Oxford University and has taught zoology at the universities of California and Oxford. He is the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. His books about evolution and science include The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype, The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, Climbing Mount Improbable, and most recently, Unweaving the Rainbow.

What is Faith?

One of the foundations of Apologetics is the definition of faith and reason and then their distinction. In the next three posts I want to look at three types of faith that I see in the Scriptures. The three types of faith are: saving faith, growing faith, and finally knowing faith. Let’s look at saving faith first. In Act 16:31 Paul tells the Philippians jailer "believe in the lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household." Please note, That the NKJV use the word faith, and the NASB uses the word Believe. I will spend time in the post concerning knowing faith on this distinction. However, the principle is the same. The only way a man comes to faith is through Christ and not by his own works or merit. Paul makes this point very clear in Galatians 2:16. The Word Faith or belief in Galatians 2:16 and also in Act 16:31 give the idea of trust or reliance.
So what is saving faith? It is a just or reliance on Christ death on the cross to reconcile you to God. Hebrews 9:22 talks about “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Our Lord in Matthew 26: 28 said "For this my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." In other words, Saving faith as you will see is the foundation for the next two types of faith. There is a logical connection between saving, growing, and knowing faith.

The Existence of God

The most important belief that one can hold, is what they believe about God. If there is no God then there are no morals and there is no meaning. In this next set of post I want to discuss the Existence of God. There are two questions that need to be asked when thinking on the existence of God. The First question is dose God exist? If so then we have to ask the second question which is what is he like? It is in this second question which we will look at the issue of God and his relationship to the meaning in our lives. In first set of post we are going to answer the first question then we will move to the second.

Let us begin by looking at the question does God exist? Historically there have been four arguments for the existence of God. They are, the Cosmological, teleological, axiological, and ontological. I you are not sure what these terms mean its okay. As I discuss each of them I will define the term. The first Argument for consideration will be the Cosmological Argument this is the argument from creation.

God Commands It

This point is more important than all the others. Simply because of the fact that God has said it. There are several scriptures that we could look at but for the scope of this post we will consider only a couple. The first set of verses that I want to look at is 2 Corinthians 10:5. In this passage of Paul's letter to the Corinthians he exhorts them to attack all ideas that are opposed to Christ. This passage makes it clear that those who believe on the Lord, should confront those ideas that keep people from a knowledge of God. The second passage is Titus 1:9. In this passage Paul tells Titus what a leader in the Church looks like. There are three things that a leader in the church should have. First, is he must hold firmly to the faith that he has been taught. The second is, that he needs to be able to teach it. Why dose a leader need to teach it? Paul says in order to encourage the brothers in sound doctrine. It seems to me that if we held to these first two criteria there would be a more unified front. The final characteristic is that he must be able to defend it against those who may be opposed.
It is this final point that really bring the whole issue home. If we hold firm this truth, and if we teach others the same sound doctrine. Then it seems to me that defending what you know to be true is a natural outworking. so could it be that since we are not defending it, we may not actually firmly believe it? To tell you the truth this thought haunts me. It is for this reason why I do what I do.

We have Answers

All the above questions are good questions, and they are worthy of answers. Some may ask why? The answer is simple, as Christians we know the God that made reality, and since this is the case we have been given the answers to the world questions. If God made this reality (and there is good evidence that he did) then the only way to know what is truly real is by knowing God. Later on we will deal with which god made this reality. So what am I implying by this? What I am am saying is that those who do not believe in God, are partakers of a reality that they do not understand. So by implication it is not outlandish to say that they are irrational.

So how this plays into answering the worlds questions? The interaction of what I have just stated is quite obvious. It is the Apologists task to introduce the world to God and thereby showing them true reality.

The World has Question

This post under Answering the Skeptic is a place where you can go to find discussion on the top Apologetic issues.In the this post I want to look at one of the basic reasons why should be engaged in Apologetics. This first reason is that the unbelieving world has good questions. Often times I see believers acting as though the unbelievers questions are below them. It has been my experience that the question that Christians are faced with in this culture are foundational to the faith that we hold. For example, the most prominate question that I face today is the question, " why did God commit moral atrocities in the Old Testament." Now as for the man on the street he is asking why does God allow evil? What is the worth of man?
One of the most disturbing thing that I see Christians doing is making fun of Atheists and down playing their system. As Christians we expect the other side to let us keep our presupposition, because they make sense given the world view that we have. We need to understand that the naturalistic world view when argued intelligently makes sense given the noetic structure that they have developed. The job of the Apologist is to show the naturalist that these presuppositions that they hold can not be lived out consistently.
So, in conclusion what I want to suggest is that when you run into a apologetic situation, make it a priority to first, listen and then ask questions. When you ask question two thing are being accomplished. First, is that you are opening the one being question up in his/her own assumptions.The second task that is being accomplished is finding the entrance point into the conversation. It is these two tasks, that I find to be the better way.

Welcome

Welcome to my personal apologetics site. I am Byron M. Gillory and I am the President and founder of The American Institute for Faith and Culture. The purpose of this site is to talk about everything that involves my field of Apologetics. I have named this site Cross Examined, because I hold the belief that in the market place of idea Christianity is on trail. Like any other trail each side takes turns asking and examining the other side. This site is me examining the other side. It is my hope that this personal site of mine will challenge you at the very core of you thinking